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You have probably at some point heard that two intact male dogs cannot live together. They won't get along. They will fight. They will both try to be the alpha.
Will intact males dogs fight? Possibly.
Neutered male dogs might also fight. Or spayed females. Or unspayed females. If there is more than one dog, there is the potential for dogs to fight.
But does having two intact dogs mean you are likely to have fights? Not necessarily. There are plenty of other contributing factors to consider. Ages of both dogs. Breeds of both dogs. Temperament of both dogs. Behavior issues with one or both dogs.
If you want to minimize the chance of two household dogs fighting with each other, you should consider the statistics for such things. Neutering is just one of those. But that one factor by itself won't tell you the risks.
At the time of this writing, we have Zooka and Blitzen. Zooka is an intact male Vizsla, two-and-a-half years old. Blitzen is an intact male Vizsla, one-and-a-half years old. They have lived together since Blitzen was around eight months of age and for the past ten months.
Have they fought? No. There has, to this point, never been a fight.
Have they thought about fighting? Yes.
They have had plenty of tense moments. One gets upset about something, stiffens and growls. The other gets worried and also tenses up. Possibly even growls back, though normally, Blitzen is the one who does the growling.
In some cases, they manage to diffuse it themselves. In some cases, one of the humans in the household steps in and redirects them both to other places to cool down.
Would I trust that they will never escalate to a fight? No, not at this point in time. The potential is there. But clearly neither one really wants to fight. If one of them actually wanted to fight, there would have been a fight or several by now.
Sometimes they get themselves in a situation they are not sure how to get out of. So far, we have helped them out of those situations. Having an adult human step in to calm things down is important. Someone who can remain calm and remind them that escalation is not the only way out of that tense moment.
So, that brings up the other piece of the puzzle that we did not mention earlier. What's that other factor? The humans.
One big factor that can help to prevent fights from becoming an issue is how the humans handle everything.
We have rules in place. We have structure and routines that help prevent problems.
Many dog fights happen over resources. No, it's NOT typically one dog trying to be the alpha. It's one dog trying to guard something they consider to be a valuable resource. A bone. Food. A food bowl. A toy. A bed. A person. A doorway (access to it). That does not mean they are trying to be the alpha dog and control everything.
Some dogs are willing to fight over valuable resources. And your dog could decide anything is a valuable resource. Including you. (By the way, that's not protecting you. That's keeping you all to himself.)
We have rules in place to prevent many of those problems.
Meal time? We separate dogs for meals until everyone is well enough trained in the routine that they mind their own business. No one is ever allowed to approach or attempt to take the other's meal.
Bones or other items to chew? Our rules are clear that you give the other dog their space and do not harass or try to take their chew item away.
Doorways? We require everyone to wait to be released through the door. Rules in place prevent them from making their own.
Furniture privileges? Only if you share and mind your manners. If not, you will be removed.
Will the rules and structure always prevent fights? No, there are some dogs who will fight anyway. But the proper planning and training can prevent a lot of problems from starting in the first place.
Can two intact male dogs live together peacefully? Yes. But you need to know your dogs well. And you should be doing everything you can to prevent potential problem areas from becoming a problem at all. And know how to address things if you begin to see issues developing.
Are there some intact male dogs who just cannot live peacefully together no matter how hard you try? Yes.
Neutering is just one factor to consider. There are plenty of other factors that you must take into account as well.
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2 intact male Lurchers, 1 is nearly 5yrs called Lurch, the other just gone 2yrs called Dodge. When Dodge was a puppy he got attacked by a staffy until Lurch put an instant stop to it, Lurch is NOT dog friendly unless he knows the dog (has been attacked many times as a puppy also when on lead by off lead dogs). The other dogs local seem to know this and tend to steer clear of him, especially the ones that attacked him and left with their tails between their legs) he won’t just attack, but he won’t like them getting anywhere near him either unless he knows that they know he is boss and won’t take no nonsense first (that is how I interpret it and it takes a lot of time to introduce safely).
Why am I saying this?
To show that even an unfriendly dog towards other dogs can live with another without problems if done correctly.
I learnt if I am playing with Lurch, Dodge cannot interfere as that will, 100% start a fight (Lurch Resource guarding) so just remove Dodge out of the equation by distracting him with somebody or something else. Lurch doesn’t mind if I am playing with Dodge 1st though. Lurch just likes 1 on 1 time with me sometimes, and I think that is fair as he happily gives Dodge and myself 1 on 1 time whenever it happens.
Everything else is great with them, they learnt to share and will eat out of same bowl happily if needed (they don’t though), they play rough and sleep with each other. They have sorted any disagreements they may have had within a second, each time I went to intervene it was over before I could blink and they then went back to whatever they were doing together before (Ahh the joy of Lurchers, EVERYTHING happens so damned fast) They will even run to the others aid if they think they are in trouble and look for each other when out off lead if parted to long (Dodge moreso).
The ONLY thing that will cause a fight between my 2 intact males, in my humble opinion, is myself
Thanks for sharing your story of Lurch and Dodge! As you pointed out, sometimes there are certain things that can be easily managed that might otherwise cause fights. Knowing your dogs well is the key to understanding the situations where a bit of help might be needed.
Thank you for this post. We have three pugs. Two intact males (1.5 & 9 years old) and the mum of our 1.5 yr old who is 5. Up until our youngest 1 they all got along really well and our two ‘seniors’ were super patient and supportive of the puppy. And then the puppy turned 1 .. The two boys are awful. They growl, and then sometimes they fight. As your post says for these guys it’s about resources, and mostly this is us. Who gets through the doorway first, who has prime spot on the bed, couch and sometimes its mealtimes. We can not pick up the 9 year old without the little one trying to attack him. if we intervene it gets worse, so we do our best to ignore and leave the room. They do stop then. We walk them separately and try to exclude/ignore them when we can tell who stated it. Our poor nine year is too old for this behaviour and doesn’t have the energy to take on this strong healthy boy. Our girl has no part in the turmoil, sometimes she has words with them, but she’s exempt. It seems reading this we need tighter rules and structure.
Hi Kellie, that sounds pretty stressful for everyone! In some cases, some stricter rules and structure will help a lot and resolve most issues. For some, it will help but not completely resolve everything. If the younger one only has issues with the other male but never with the female, then in your particular situation, neutering the younger one (not the older one) might help in addition to the added rules/structure. Typically, if the aggressive behaviors are only toward other males and not females, neutering can actually help. If he were having issues with both of the other dogs, then the added rules and structure would certainly be the route to go. Good luck, I would love to hear an update once you get some better structure in place!
THANK YOU for this article. Very helpful. We have 4 dogs now. Willy is 5 1/2 , we have his full biological sister, Callie, who just turned 5, Tori is 3 1`/2 and we just added Remi last fall and he turned 1 this past April. We’ve certainly had a few tense moments. I believe its mostly resource guarding, foods (when I am preparing–I make all their food) the boys vie for my husbands attention (Willy is HIS dog). They really do well, other than those times which we are careful to manage. A funny/strange thing happened just a few days ago, where I was just starting to get the 4 dog good bowls together on the end of our island, like I always do. Everyone was in place as usual. Remi for some reason came to the end of the island and started growling at Willy….I stepped back a bit and usually tell them to knock it off and “PLACE”. Well, this time and it is the only time this has happened. Tori came off her place (from behind me) and growled and snarled at Remi and he completely backed down. I don’t know if she was protecting me (she and I do have a special bond) or if she just jumped in to diffuse the situation, which totally did. Anyway, my main question is, are there things we should be doing, rules wise, to enforce more structure? We do make them wait and be released by name when entering doors or leaving doors, when entering the truck or out of the truck, when eating they have to be released by name, one at a time. Remi has growled at Will on bed our and has been immediately removed. Should he be allowed back on? What other rules should be used? Does it matter whether we use hierarchy to allow thru doors and such, or not?? When one tries to run out the door without being release they are then released last. Thank you.
Hi Colleen, it sounds like you have some good rules and boundaries in place already, that’s great! I always look at the problem areas or potential problem areas to make sure I have the right rules in place for that particular mix of dogs. For example, if meal time is still an issue sometimes, then it might make sense to spread bowls and/or their PLACES farther apart. I also look at things such as, when everyone is in their PLACE, where is their focus? Is anyone staring at someone? Is anyone sending subtle messages to another dog that is making things tense? So some households will need more rules, some can relax certain rules, but make sure you are looking at what they NEED to be successful. If things are fine most of the time but not all of the time, we might need some adjustments. When Remi has growled at Will on the bed, what triggers it? How often does it happen? If it’s one time and things seem to have been remedied, it might be fine. If it keep happening, Remi might lose bed privileges for a while. He can always earn them back later. But make sure you get some consistent time with NO growling or issues before reconsidering. Hope that helps! Does hierarchy matter? You can get lots of different opinions on that one! In my household, there is no hierarchy among the dogs. They get rewarded or released based on who is making the best decisions or who makes the right decision first. I do not base it on age or who was there first, or who I think is higher on the hierarchy, because that stuff is irrelevant in my household if I have the right rules in place.
I’m so glad I stumbled upon this blog! I’m not seeing a date on this story, do your two intact male Vizlas still get along ok? I’m considering a second intact male and trying to get as much information as I can. My current dog is 2.5, a Portuguese Water Dog. He has a wonderful temperment, has never growled ever in his life, he shares water food, toys, is very tolerant of young kids, could care less about anything. He was even used as the neutral dog for the other dogs during his CGC test day. We are more than ready for dog #2 but the breeder I am going through this time is hesitant to give us a male, says intact males fight. I just can’t imagine my current male being that way, I think a female would be harder honestly. He’s way too “interested’ in girls if you know what I mean, seems like that would be way more difficult to deal with.
hi Michelle, I just wrote this article this fall so it has not been very long. But yes, they still get along. Statistically, the most likely dogs to fight are two dogs around the same age and of the same gender. So, will intact male dogs fight? Possibly, but there are many other factors to consider. It really depends on their temperaments. When Zooka was around 6 months old (before Blitzen joined us), we had two other intact males board with us for a week. Three intact males dogs. And guess what? They all got along great! (I do screen them carefully to make sure they have the right temperaments for it.) It sounds as if your dog would be a good candidate, so it would really depend on the 2nd dog you are considering. If the temperament is similar to your dog, you will probably not have any problem. Good luck!